Nafisa Bashir Khan

A thirty-three-year-old housewife turned woman entrepreneur Nafisa Bashir Khan from Hukkeeri in Belagavi district of Karnataka beams with pride as she presents her products to customers at her shop in rural Hukkeri. The shop, small but housing hundreds of neat stacks of agarbathi sticks, is one spot not to miss in the neighbourhood as a warm fragrance of agarbathis fill the air all the time attracting hundreds of customers.

Her business was impacted severely a year ago when the lockdown was imposed to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. Her regular customers and bulk buyers retreated to their village and the shop remained closed for several days.

After the lockdown, Nafisa wanted to resume her business but struggled with inventory and loss of earnings throughout the lockdown. However, she was determined to rescue her business and was looking for funds, when she was introduced to Muthoot Microfin by a friend. After learning about the hassle-free loan procedures, she immediately joined a neighbourhood JLG and availed of the first cycle loan of ₹20,000. With the money, she bought all the required raw materials in bulk to resume production of quality agarbathis at the shop.

A year later, thanks to her business acumen and timely financial support by Muthoot Microfin, Nafisa’s business strongly rebounded and carries five times the initial amount of merchandise and is still growing. She managed to navigate the troubled waters with calm and grace. Now, she has availed the second cycle loan of ₹45,000 and utilised the entire amount to increase her production and employed two neighbours at the shop. The loan also motivated Nafisa to create her first savings account, a mobile banking account controlled through her cell phone. She likes keeping her money in the account, instead of in the house, so that she can be deliberate on how to spend it.

A thankful Nafisa says “I was given a new life after the lockdown by Muthoot Microfin. Its timely loan and motivation helped me to rebuild my lost business; I would recommend Muthoot to all the people I know who wants to get ahead from setbacks in their life”.